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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27106345">Friends With Benefits</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiddlingTheBest/pseuds/MiddlingTheBest'>MiddlingTheBest</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Friends on Either Side [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>All that friendly fluffy stuff, Blood, Blood and Injury, Gen, Impaling mentioned, No characters are hurt, Remus and Janus are friends, Remus typical imagery, War and battle scenes described, imaginary violence, kind of a fluff piece</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:14:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,422</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27106345</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiddlingTheBest/pseuds/MiddlingTheBest</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking place during Chapter 9 of Friends on the Other Side, this is Remus's perspective of when Virgil is summoned for the first time trimmed from the original chapter because it didn't quite fit in. Please read the tags!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders &amp; Deceit | Janus Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Friends on Either Side [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Friends With Benefits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Please head the tags! Violent imagery from the get-go x</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>This was nice, Remus thought as he gazed through the window at the scene in his mind playing out in the Imagination. Straddling both worlds from inside the house was tricky, it took a lot to concentrate on so many details at once without letting them in through the glass. That was window rule number one: no deadly threats in the house. Screams of angry, bleeding, dying men and women resounded perfectly in his mind, each voice unique for each of the thousands of soldiers fighting before him. Every weapon in hand was moving, every injury real, and every body that fell stayed underfoot of friend and foe alike. There were no half-hearted extras in his scenes, no bodies just there to take up space. This was a war! And war meant fighting to see your next sunrise.</p><p>The crashing of steel was deafening in his ears but he knew it wasn’t reaching the others or they would have complained by now. He thought briefly about letting them hear it, and the added shrieks of surprise and fear met his ears just before a water bottle struck the back of his head, informing him he’d done it. Laughing, he dragged the scene back into his head as Virgil swore up a storm about his make up being ruined and Janus quietly talked him down. As he said, it was a tricky act to keep the worlds separate. Personally, he thought he was pretty good at it. The odd slip-up could hardly be helped.</p><p>The other two were sitting in silence – <em>dull</em> – which seemed to suit them just fine and Remus was happy watching his battle unfold. It should be boring, and it was. It lacked any spontaneity or rush of emotions but he was entertained and the others were happy. It was, as he’d learned, nice.</p><p>Then Virgil disappeared! And things became <em>interesting</em>.</p><p>“Did he just die!” Remus squealed, thrill coiling around the acidic rush of fear he felt for the missing side and making him shiver in excitement. He loped over to Janus from his spot on the floor, the scenes of bloody war disappearing from their window as the red staining the battlefield melted down into the muddy floor of his forest. It hadn’t been that good anyway, there wouldn’t have been enough people left for prisoners on either side at the rate it had been going. Janus usually helped him plan the battles but he’d been busy. There were never any survivors when Remus played on his own.</p><p>Standing before him now, Remus didn’t like the look in Janus’s eyes, the confused way he moved his hands, the distance that he was putting between Remus’s brain and his.</p><p>“No, he didn’t.” He answered like that would be enough and Remus waited liked he’d learned, slowly leaning in, eyes widening, to see if more would come. But it didn’t. He was hiding it. Like a little treasure chest in the maw of a beast. Janus was keeping a secret and Remus wanted to know what it was. He didn’t quite realise at first, however, that Janus wasn’t keeping it from <em>him</em>. He was keeping it from himself. Lucky for him Remus cared much more about the beast than the treasure anyway. He poked the older side in the face. The vicious slap his hand received was much more like how Janus was meant to be – feisty, resolute, <em>alive</em> – not the boring little lump currently sitting in his spot, so he did it again. And again. Until Janus’s cheek was flushed and he’d had to grab his prodding hands to still them.</p><p>Despite the annoyance Janus didn’t really brighten up under his pestering and Remus realised this was a mood he probably <em>could</em> poke Janus out of but he doubted he would get him into a better one. So he let Janus pull him down onto the couch, sitting in Virgil’s spot with his back straightened like he’d been impaled, bottom to top and still alive but nowhere near as fun. At least on this side of the couch he could see Janus’s scales which  he couldn’t from his own side. They were his favourite of Janus’s features and he was <em>pretty</em> close to convincing him to part with some of his shed, he was sure of it. He couldn’t read his face quite as well from this side though so he sat still, stayed put, lips locked, out of trouble, until Janus gave an idication that he was ready to talk.</p><p>The issue was that Remus demanded answers for things, that was his nature. He didn’t particularly care what that answer was, he didn’t really even want it for himself. He just wanted to pick at the wound, peel back the scabs to see if the flesh underneath had healed, expose that tender skin to the harsh, unclean air and welcome it to the world. To see if it was ready to <em>play</em>. Virgil had told him countless times that that wasn’t <em>nice</em>; Janus hadn’t bothered to, even after he'd made Virgil cry.</p><p>Remus knew that Janus understood the urge. He knew that Janus accepted it like he accepted most things about him, even when it made him uncomfortable or when he’d crossed a line. <em>Especially</em> when he’d crossed a line! He had told Janus years ago that he wasn’t stupid and Janus accepted that too, had never questioned it or asked why, if Remus was so smart, he didn't know when he was being too much. They both knew that Remus <em>did</em> know. Just like Janus knew that asking him not to do it anyway contradicted everything that Remus was.</p><p>Yet here they were. Remus couldn’t readily think of a time that Janus had asked him to do something that he hadn’t already wanted to do in the first place. He’d definitely <em>done it</em> but it was hard to think when every fibre of his being was itching to say what he knew Janus didn’t want to hear. Repression was <em>hard</em>. Like their friendship should be hard! …He <em>wasn’t</em> hard. That was depressing. At least now he was distracted! But now he was thinking about it again. <em>Repression was hard!</em> He didn’t know how Janus did this all day. But at least he was back to thinking about what he’d been thinking about before he realised he was thinking about what he <em>shouldn’t </em>be thinking about… he thought.</p><p>Janus looked over to Remus, to make some kind of comment that might break the odd silence between them, but he stopped short at the near-painful look of concentration on the duke’s face. Through the guilt and gratitude that Remus could read on him, he watched for the tell, the twitch, that would show him that the special, exasperated fondness the other side had for him was poking at his insides. Remus didn’t comment when it weaselled its way onto Janus’s face, not even when the little beastie of an emotion went on to slink into his own chest. It was linked too closely to what they were keeping hush about and he didn’t want to risk spilling the beans just yet so they both settled back into the couch and their discomfort.</p><p>Remus, without a doubt in his mind, knew that there wasn’t a <em>chance</em> he’d do this for anyone else. He did it because it was Janus; Janus who understood what he was asking and had asked anyway, and while Remus <em>didn’t</em> understand, he could trust for now that the other side knew what he was doing.</p><p>Virgil’s reappearance was a relief that he was <em>so ready for</em> and he was gone with a cry before the sullen side could get a word in. Crashing through the window into his forest, he pulled up his war from before and his morning star. Spiked metal, heavy and unforgiving, crashed into the terrified face of one of his soldiers. He didn’t pick a side, he just rampaged through the carnage; thinking of pain, thinking of Janus, thinking of Virgil who looked like he might be sad. Roman’s face appeared in front of him and he smashed it down with glee, followed by Logic, then Morality, and then Logic again because he could. His little emo was hurting, and so was Janus, and while being away from them now was the best he could do for them maybe one day he’d get to return the favour to whoever was causing it.</p><p>The war struggled on. But there would be one survivor now.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi! Happy Sanders Sides anniversary guys! This was just a little insight into Remus's mindset when Virgil was first summoned. It's just a one-off, some stuff I had written and had to cut, but I hope you enjoy! (BTW the benefit of being friends with Remus is that sometimes he can actually be very nice if he likes you enough)</p><p>Thanks for reading x</p></blockquote></div></div>
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